Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master Likely On Track For October Release Date

With Paul Thomas Anderson hard at work on his next feature film The Master, optimistic movie fans have been counting on a release later this year-- with the full knowledge that these things can take time, and it was entirely possible we'd be left waiting until 2013 for the new film from the director of There Will Be Blood and Magnolia. But it seems the cinema gods may be with us this time-- PTA fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines reached out to the film's producer Megan Ellison via Twitter about the movie's release date, and got this tentative response:

" I know you guys are waiting on a release date for 'the Master', and it's still a bit early, but I'd keep my eyes on October."

Granted, that's not a huge surprise-- a movie as high-profile as this one, with The Weinstein Company distributing it, was bound to find an Oscar-season release, and October puts it just after the big festivals in New York and Toronto, while also making it entirely possible that it could premiere at either of those fests. As Cigs and Red Vines points out, both Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love premiered in New York, so it seems entirely possible for Anderson to make it a hat trick and show up at Lincoln Center again in September.

That would be excellent news for this New Yorker, but really for all of us, this is a good sign. Anderson spent a lot of time and shuffled past a lot of cast members before finally putting together The Master, and it seemed perfectly plausible he might hold it for another year while perfecting it. Now we can safely assume a 2013 release for the film, which has been reported as a pseudo-biopic about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role and Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Laura Dern supporting him. There's nothing not to be excited about here, so tentatively mark your calendars for this fall, and share my shock at being excited for Oscar season already.